


Looking for a sign

by bloody_blade0



Series: Me and My Broken Heart [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Boss Harry, CEO Harry, Dom/sub Undertones, M/M, No Smut, Possessive Harry, Sexual Frustration, Tension, a lil bit of fluff, assistant louis, because harry's personality, harry is a jealous lil shit, like... the way they talk at one point?, louis is so done
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 10:05:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14974880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloody_blade0/pseuds/bloody_blade0
Summary: It went as far as him making his dentist appointments and picking up his dog from the vet. He had his mother and sister's numbers on his phone, and Harry's favourite pizza place on speed dial. He'd received more than 5 drunken calls a month, either asking to come to pick him up, resulting in Harry giggling like a fool or leaning on Louis so he basically had to drag the taller man to the car, or just calling him pretty and blue, Lou, you're so beautifully blue through the speakerphone.Louis might've found it endearing, but he would rather be put on a spinning wheel with a rabid dog than to admit that.orLouis is painfully aware of his crush on his boss that's lasted for 4 years and is not sexually frustrated.





	Looking for a sign

Louis is having a really bad day.

As in, slept in, spilled coffee on a shirt he was positive wasn't his, got yelled at by cranky taxi drivers too early in the morning because he almost got killed running towards the office that couldn't have been further from his apartment even if they planned it.

He's usually known as a nice, quiet person to those who don't know him very well, and even when he's mad or upset, he doesn't let it show.

That may be the reason why he'd climbed all the way on the business ladder up to the position of Harry Styles' personal assistant. 

Many things might explain his position as the 27 year old's right hand for already 4 years, Louis likes to think it's because he was qualified for the job, had experience, ambition and showed more class than 78% of the applicants that've shown up for the interview the same day as him, but in the end, the rational part of his mind has made peace with the fact that he's got it because mama Styles, the founder of the company planned to retire and leave the company to her son who's been at the position of the Vice President for 10 years. 10 years of prosperity for their company, better image, but also, more of their name drawn through the gossip columns of magazines Mrs. Styles didn't want her company to be mentioned in.

So Louis it was. 

Plain old Louis who realized his position even before he started his first day.

Keep the boss in line. 

It proved to be not much of a task, Harry was quite professional and the business flourished when he got the chair, but some things Louis refused to get into.

Like his boss' private life.

If one could call it that.

No matter how much Louis tried to keep a professional distance from the man, Harry wouldn't allow it for a second, charming his way into Louis' heart with quirky jokes and shared bagels. 

Louis was ashamed to admit that he was sporting a crush on a man who's befriended him in order to have normal relationship with his employee, not that Louis ever dreamed of having any sort of relationship with his boss other than professional. It stung though, seeing that it was just Harry, not Louis' Harry as he would like to think, but general audience Harry, who flirted with everyone, including his very new, very male, very gay (not that he knew anything about that) assistant. Louis was proud of the fact that he was blessed with extraordinary asocial behavior that didn't allow him to engage himself in the process with his boss in the first few days on the job, smiling where he thought he should, saying 'yes' and 'thank you' when he thought the man wanted to hear it, and laughed at the jokes the man told that actually made him want to vomit into his own mouth.

Thankfully, putting on a socially presentable mask came naturally to Louis so after Harry put him on a friendship/coworker trial of three months (it's easier for Louis to think of the period in that way), the man probably reckoned they should have no secrets with each other. 

So they became besties.  Joy.

Louis had the feeling life was shitting with him from the moment he entered the building of his new workplace but this, this was something else because Harry started acting as if they knew each other for years. 

Other than asking Louis to cancel his dates 'yes Mr. Styles is currently not in the country, he's a part of the mission _Save the elephants of Africa_ so he had to fly away urgently. Apparently one of the elephants fell ill and needed his immediate attention. Yes that is rather sweet of him. Yes, he's mentioned you enjoy animals. Especially elephants. Yes their ears are adorable. No, I do not think they are for fighting off the birds, madam. Yes, I shall say to him to bring you an elephant sculpture. You too, madam, have a good day.' , arrange his dates, which lead to an embarrassing situation in which a young lady thought she was receiving a call directly from her suitor and started moaning seductively into the phone while Louis had to tell her that the gentleman is rather occupied at a meeting at the moment (he was playing monopoly with the janitor's daughter) but asked of him to make a reservation in which ever restaurant she chose. The girl didn't sound embarrassed at all, she even asked Louis what to order and what to send Harry as a surprise breakfast tomorrow at work. Louis recommended lobster and informed her that tomorrow is Harry's rest day so he would quite enjoy a double cheeseburger and a coke, knowing the man was lactose intolerant and highly sensitive to sugary, greasy foods, because - _Do you know how unhealthy that is Lou?_.

Louis then proceeded to the restroom where he sat on the toilet seat, blasting Panic! At the Disco, googling _'McDonald's salary'_. 

 

It went as far as him making his dentist appointments and picking up his dog from the vet. He had his mother and sister's numbers on his phone, and Harry's favourite pizza place on speed dial. He'd received more than 5 drunken calls a month, either asking to come to pick him up, resulting in Harry giggling like a fool or leaning on Louis so he basically had to drag the taller man to the car, or just calling him pretty and _blue, Lou, you're so beautifully blue_ through the speakerphone. 

Louis might've found it endearing, but he would rather be put on a spinning wheel with a rabid dog than to admit that. 

His life had been quite stressful for the past few years, but he enjoyed the job, and even if he didn't stay here for another year, the experience he has as an assistant at the Styles Co. will look great on his CV.

What might not look good on his boss' image of his assistant is the fact that he's coming in 20 minutes late to work because the one night stand he'd fucked turned off the fucking alarm.  Explain that to your boss. 

 

He came in rushing through the door, but slowed down his pace as he approached his work desk.  He didn't want to be flushed and sweaty and smell and distracted... 

He actually didn't want to face his boss. Harry might be one of his boss/friend/longtime crush/soulmate but that doesn't mean he doesn't respect the man. Or that he doesn't know Harry, because he does, very well, and if there is anything Harry hates on this world, more than grape flavored skittles, it's Louis being late. Louis was never late. 

 

Harry and Louis usually arrived at the parking lot at the same time, waved at the security guard at the same time as Harry held the door for Louis (a habit he spent a lot of time thinking about whether he should be insulted or flattered by but in the end he realized it shouldn't be neither because it wasn't a macho or a gentleman thing, it was just a Harry thing).

 

As he passed by the receptionist, nodding his head, he saw her nodding back and looking at him funnily under her red rimmed glassed. Louis felt on spot. Even the pigeon that flew over his head when he got out of the apartment seemed to judge him for being late. Bloody disoriented little hypocritical shits those pigeons are. 

 

He had a life, okay? It may not seem like it, with his obsessive dedication to his job but sometimes even a mother needs a break from her child. 

And Louis needs to get laid. (Yes, he's that kind of a mother) It seems like his sex life stopped at the same time Harry's flourished.He doesn't mean to say that all those dates he arranged ended up with sex, but hey... They probably did. 

He doesn't like to think about it.

And he wouldn't if only he'd get laid at least once a month. But nooo, every time he plans a night out, sets up a date with awesome dudes, Dickface Von Shithead pops out of nowhere and says they have a business trip to France, Morocco, Italy, Japan...

He flew all the way to Japan and had to call off a date because Harry had shown up on his doorstep and said 'why aren't you ready?' So he had to get ready in under half an hour only to sit next to Harry who didn't want to discuss the trade they were having with the Japanese, 'go with the flow Lou' but prefered to play candy crush on his way to Tokyo.

The clonging sound didn't drive Louis crazy. At all.

He would play the sound on repeat for 10 hours straight if it meant he didn't have to face him now, though. Louis was a wreck as it is, he'd barely slept, forgot his laptop and his earbuds, it was a nightmare, really. Also, he hated being yelled at.

Or sternly spoken to, whatever.

He tried to calm his breathing as he put his messenger bag away when he heard 'Mr. Tomlinson, could you please come to my office?'

He was a dead man.

 

 

As painful as it might've been, he'd mustered the courage to enter the man's office, not before he took five calming breathins though. Those three yoga lessons he'd went to with Lottie suddenly coming back at him and he'd never been more grateful for all the stretching and painfully calm atmosphere he'd spent three hours in before he thought he'd go mad with the sound of birds chirping and rain falling from the instructor's laptop and stormed out, trembling with disgust as he lit a cigarette that made him feel alive again. 

He'd kill for a cigarette now.

Harry wasn't looking at him, he was facing the window, pretending to be looking at the city line, even though Louis was 98% sure it was just pretense, his boss trying to establish dominance and actually looking at Louis' reflection in the glass window to see how long it'll take for him to start squirming.

"You came in late." the man spoke as a matter of factly.

"I have, Sir."

He could see Harry's fists clenching before he turned to face Louis, his face seemingly disinterested. 

"You have a coffee stain on your shirt." the man noted.

"I do, Sir."

Louis wondered how long will it take until his boss is annoyed with his passive answering and send him to hell.

Harry was approaching him, deathly calm, squinting at him suspiciously.

"That's not your shirt."

"No, I believe it's not, Sir."

The man raised an eyebrow in vivid interest, taking a step closer to inspect the shirt that was a bit too big on Louis, but he wasn't capable of brushing his teeth that morning properly, he was quite sure he used Liam's toothbrush and spit all over the mirror, so don't judge him for his fashion choices. Go with the motherfucking flow.

"Whose is it then?" 

Louis was one of those workaholics who was unusually dedicated to everything he did, especially when it comes to his career. And as trivial as it might sound, he did anticipate a situation in which he might be scolded for inappropriate clothing at his work place, so he reread the rules of the Office a few times. Not once did they mention that you're obliged to say the origin of the inappropriate clothing. 

But he'd indulge his boss, just like he always does.

"I believe it's Liam's." 

Louis could see the vein on his boss' forehead popping. 

Interesting.

"You.. believe it's Liam's?" Harry spoke lowly, eyeing the item as if it made him itchy.

Louis reckoned his designer little heart can't bare the sight of a defiled silky, stained piece of fabric, especially on a body nothing like the models it was designed for. 

"I'm not quite certain, but I do, yes."

It was too big to be Jake's. John's. Josh's. The what'shisface he shoved out of his room and never wanted to see the said face because that's how The Law works.

"Who, may I ask, is Liam?" Harry said sweetly.

"My roommate, Sir."

"You have a roommate?" Harry asked bewildered.

"I do, yes."

"How do I not know of this roommate?"

"You never asked." Louis shrugged.

He could hear Harry mutter something into his chest, but didn't pay much mind to it.

It was too fucking stressful to stand here when all he could think about was  _I need a cigarette._

"Take it off." Harry said abruptly, turning towards his desk without paying his assistant a second glance.

What.

"What?"

"Yeah, we can't have you walking like that in a over sized shirt with a... blop on it." the man stated.

"We have to reflect the image we present to the public in our company, yes." he continued to nod as Louis stood, so done with life.

"Sir, I have no spare clothing." he rubbed his eyes, regretting coming into work. He could've called in sick.

"You can borrow mine." Harry waved him off. 

"I don't think it would fit, Sir. And, it would be highly unprofessional." 

He was being so full of shit, he knew it, but... Wearing Harry's clothes is not something his fragile mind can take at the moment.

"You didn't care about that when you put on your roommate's shirt this morning, did you now?" Harry spoke disinterested as he rummaged through a closet he had installed in the office. Talk about being a diva.

"I was in a hurry, I know it's inappropriate, I could call Zayn in to bring me clothes, if you don't think this is worth a suspension, of course."

Zayn would probably kill him if he asked him to come to the other side of city to bring him anything. 

"Why were you in a hurry? And don't be ridiculous, you won't get suspended for this."

He really wanted to be suspended for this. He wanted to be as far as possible from this office and Harry who stood there, tall and pouty, inspecting the two shirts Louis wouldn't dare to touch in a store. 

"I slept in." 

Better to tell the truth, right?

"You?" Harry laughed.

"Louis William Tomlinson slept in?"

Louis will not question the reason as to why his boss knows his middle name.

"I did, yeah." 

"How so? Long night?"

"Yes." 

The man inspected him for a second before deciding on a shirt and giving it to him without saying a word. 

Louis looked at him, exasperated, but the man only smiled at him dopily, not making a sign that he might turn away, and Louis honestly didn't care because funnily, he thought, this was the only chance he gets of getting any clothes off in front of Harry.  

He started to unbutton the shirt grumpily, knowing seductive isn't his thing, and laid it on the chair besides Harry, brushing past him.

The fabric fell easily on his shoulders, soft and smelling of Harry, which.. No.

It reached his mid thighs, and an oversized shirt combined with his disheveled hair that refused to bow down on a good day. It's enough to say his after sex look is not something you see in an underwear commercial. More 'help the young addicts' ones. Louis usually has to coax it with hair products Zayn brought in because Louis couldn't be bothered, and his job was to be an efficient modern day slave to the beauty and grace of a reincarnated Apollo, not a model. He could never pull it off. 

Trying not to think how much he's embarrassing himself in front of Harry by revealing the body that he considers is sacrilegious to show to a man who's seen more Victoria's Angels than Victoria herself, he tried to button up the shirt but a large hand caught his wrist, stopping his movements, and for a second, his heart. 

"What's this?" Harry asked, one hand pressing into one of the bruises on his chest, the other one still holding onto his wrist.

Louis was seconds away from begging Harry to remove his warm hand from his skin because he has a family history of heart illnesses and all this stress and...  _physical molestation,_ couldn't do nothing but cause a heart attack.

"Nothing." Louis stammered quickly, trying to finish putting the damn shirt on and put an end to this torture.

Harry's grip on his wrist tightened, and it seemed as if he got incredibly close, his breath coming out in short, barely controlled puffs.

"Louis, darling," he started in a sugary voice," why did you come in late to work this morning?"

It was a question.

Just a damn question. 

But Louis' brain turned mushy. 

"Err... Slept in?" he said uncertainly, eyeing the door of Harry's office as if they were the gates of Heaven.

"Hmm.." the man hummed, gently passing over the bruise, making Louis all hot and bothered,"be a doll and tell the reason as to why you slept in."

"The alarm..." Louis swallowed, "turned off the alarm."

Harry was looking at him in the eyes, and Louis didn't want to seem so guilty as he felt so he tried to cover it up as much as possible.

"Did you turn off the alarm, darling?" Harry lowered his voice, bringing Louis' hand to his chest, making it impossible for the shorter man to see anything but the man's chest. He resisted the urge to bury his nose into his boss' broad, firm chest, because, he had self control, damn it. Barely.

"Who did?" 

It might've crossed Louis' mind how this is one of his mind pornos plot playing out, in flesh, in Harry's actual office, with Louis in front of him, no flashbacks of him walking in on some tall brunette John sucking his boss' dick, but at the moment Louis' mind was playing out two scenarios, either him getting bent over the table or running away and moving to Poland because he's not sure he'll be able to form a coherent thought for three months.

"Jake." 

Was it Jake? 

Did it matter?

Harry hummed, Louis feeling the vibration of his chest against the palm that was pressed firmly against the man, threatening to burn through the white shirt Louis bought him on an occasion he can't remember properly. All he remembers is that it was on sale in some fancy shop and that Harry wore it often.

"Thank you." Harry said, surprising Louis who almost broke his neck looking at the man, sporting an unbothered expression. He was quite good at that, Zayn was his best mate after all.

"Wasn't so hard telling the truth, was it?" 

Louis felt praised. 

It made him feel weird, and not office appropriate so he shook away his fantasies and took a step away, quickly dressing barely controlling the tremble of his fingers. 

"I didn't think that it mattered, Sir." he cleared his voice, looking coolly at the man, seeing a flash of anger in his boss' eyes, or it might've been a trick of the light, Louis forgot to put his contacts in this morning anyway.

Harry looked into his face for a second, Louis willing himself not to look away, because he was sure he thought this through more than it should be thought through, and his boss wasn't doing anything Louis both wanted and dreaded.

The man muttered under his breath before turning away and sitting behind his desk.

"Go get a coffee and get familiar with today's schedule. Let me know when's Donner coming."

So Louis was right. There was the interest of his boss in his private life as much as any other person, for gossip or out of curiosity, to see what's the prude workaholic with a passive face up to. 

Louis didn't mind people in the office thinking of him that way, but knowing Harry might share their opinion fell heavy on his heart.

"Donner will be here at 10, after that you need to get to Olivia to discuss the contracts you've made for that record label two weeks ago. Their lawyer has had some complaints and wants to change some clauses he thinks will benefit his client more, and leave no obligation on our or the record label's part to withhold from any previously affirmed matters."

"Such as?" Harry raised his eyebrow.

"Public appearance and bending around the copyright issue." 

"Didn't know there was an issue about the copyright clause? Why wasn't I informed?" Harry's tone was leveled, bordering stern. Louis hated it.

"It wasn't specifically said out loud at any point during the making of the contract, I assume Mr. Phillips wanted to consult his client and get back to us before the legal complaint time was over. I left a post on sticker on your copy of the contract and the meeting protocol after we've ended it, on your desk two weeks ago." 

Louis hated being scolded for things he did right and being angry at for reasons he didn't know of.

"And it was mentioned in the drives I clipped to the e-mail last night." he added, just for spite.

"Weren't you preoccupied last night?" Harry smirked, making Louis' blood boil. How  _dare_ he mock him? How dare he, when he's the reason Louis' cat had a better love life than him? How dare he, after not looking at him for longer than it takes to order a coffee or reschedule a meeting, mock him, and rub in his own... activities... in Louis' nose?

"I am very good at dealing with matters regarding my personal life in adequate time." Louis said, not without a little undertone of spite, hoping to bite Harry where it hurt the most.

(He'll deal later with the fact that he knows what hurts his boss the most, and the fact that his boss might be his only weak spot.)

Harry looked taken aback for a second before his face was schooled into a neutral look. 

"Is that all, Sir? May I leave?" Louis asked, as if he'd be anywhere on the world but standing in front of his obnoxious boss at the moment.

Louis didn't know if he heard properly as he turned to leave after Harry dismissed him, but his boss was either suffering from withdrawal or Louis needed a hearing aid kit.

_"adequately 's why you pissy... ruin you til you scream... learn your place... mine."_

 

 


End file.
